Over the past decade, both parents and institutions are relying more heavily on educational toys as supplement learning tools. One popular education toy is a writing tablet that is communicatively coupled to a computer. Normally, a stylus or other non-ink producing writing instrument accompanies the tablet. As one end of the stylus comes into contact with a writing surface of the tablet, its location is registered by a sensing mechanism situated within the tablet. In response to the user gliding the stylus across the writing surface of the tablet, outlining a desired graphical representation (e.g., a handwritten alphanumeric character, an image, etc.), the computer generates a corresponding graphical representation for display on its monitor screen.
One problem with conventional writing tablets is that the user has no ability to discern what color is currently associated with the stylus. The current color associated with the stylus is merely ascertained by the user when the graphical representation being rendered on the tablet is displayed on the computer monitor. This may slightly impede the learning of colors by children and unnecessarily causes drawing errors by the user who may not be aware of the selected color or particular line thickness or patterns produced by the stylus.
Another problem with conventional writing tablets is that regular ink-filled writing instruments cannot be used with the tablet.